The Windy City Wine Festival 2018 is one of my favorite WINE events of the year and the reason is simple, Location, Location, Location. The festival grounds are wrapped around the northern half of Buckingham Fountain, beautiful during the day, spectacular at night, with the eastern boundary of Lake Shore Drive with a cool breeze off the lake and the boats bobbing in the harbor and on the west you have Columbus Drive and the lights from the tall buildings on Michigan Avenue, to the north, well, you have more of Grant Park. If you are going to drink wine outside, this is the place to do it. The event is Friday Sept. 7 and Saturday Sept 8, clink on the link to their website for times and tickets. I have been to indoor wine events were the crowd was so large that the building air-conditioning couldn’t quite keep up and the traffic patterns had folks waiting inline for a particular booth blocking access for everyone else. What should have been a happy event was more irritating than fun. In my experience that has never been the situation at the Windy City Wine Festival, there is entertainment, food vendors and nicknack vendors and information booths, all spread out over a fairly large area. If there is a long line for a certain wine booth, that means there are others near by (over 300 wines to sample) with easy access. There is plenty of room to maneuver around, if your hungry, get some food, if your too hot, go get cooled off by the spray from the fountain, if your thirsty, then you came to the right place.
